Motivation, an art to make business profitable

By Amila Muthukutti

One of the most valuable assets that any business has, is its people. There should be highly qualified and motivated employees to shape the future of the business, making it more profitable and competitive.

People work to live. If they could live without working hard, they will never work. It means that there is always something that really motivates employees to work hard. That is why, they work hard.

Therefore, it is very important for managers, especially CEOs to have a motivation strategy to create and maintain the spirit of enthusiasm among employees.

One of the most important challenges that lies before the manager, is how to motivate employees in the best possible way.

Employees are motivated to work, only if their expectations are met at the work place. As a result, managers are compelled to draft a motivation plan that benefits employees and business.

Goals

To begin with, employees should be partners of the business, especially success of the business, as motivation of people is directly based on what employees can gain from the business.

Managers or team leaders ought to share the organisational vision with employees based on the organisational hierarchy, so that employees have an idea of where to go and what to do to achieve business goals.

What is more important is that managers should convince employees that they too have a major role to play in bringing glory to the business in the competitive business environment.

What needs to be is to properly communicate with people in the business. If not, you will be unable to identify ideas and attitudes that employees hold.

One of the greatest needs of a person is to be appreciated. Large ceremonies that need much money are not essential to appreciate people. Privileges must be provided based on performance alone.

However, the biggest mistake that can always be seen not only in Sri Lanka but also in all Asian countries, is that perks and privileges are given based on nepotism and sexism which undoubtedly demotivates hard working employees. This will lead to presenteeism.

Costly

Presenteeism is a newly coined word in the business world. It means that although employees are present in office, they do not work, because they think high performance will not result in promotions in their business entities.

This can always be seen in the State sector. This is costly and disadvantageous for business institutes, as salaries have to paid on time, although the employees do not work. People can't grow if they are constantly doing what they have always done. Hence, different and more challenging tasks have to be given to employees based on their knowledge and skills.

What can be seen in many business entities is that top level managers are reluctant to share their work with juniors.

These managers do all the work alone with the ulterior motive of exaggerating their performance and claiming credit for it.

This results in dissatisfaction and a high turnover of staff. The targets that are given to person should be attainable. If not, it will undoubtedly lead to a pessimistic attitudes among employees. At the same time, proper programs must be designed to improve performance.

People ought to be armed with skills, before they are provided with challenges. Seniors must let juniors resolve issues on their own, as everyone has a unique way to deal with problems. One of the factors that results in demotivation is that juniors have no conducive environment to put into practice creative ideas.

Profitability

The organisation should be a platform where innovative ideas can be put into action. The work environment is important to employees, probably more than money. Some employees work for low wages in some business organisations, due to the good working environment.

If the workplace is nice to work in, it will energise and motivate employees to work more efficiently, resulting in higher profitability in the business. What seniors should understand is that juniors or employees are not machines that can be operated for twenty four hours. Actually, there are no machines that can be operated all day.

Therefore, it should be compulsory for all employees to have their meals on time.

\This can create positive attitudes towards business. Some researchers have found that putting a picture of children or family members on their desk can energise some workers.

Motivation is an art that makes your business more profitable. What the business community has to keep in mind is that personal growth and business growth should go simultaneously.

The writer holds a BA in Economics from the University of Colombo